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CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE.

HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, AND TRAVELS.

The History of the Norman Conquest of England, its causes and its results. By EDWARD A. FREEMAN, M.A., late Fellow of Trinity College. Vol. I.-The Preliminary History to the Election of Eadward the Confessor. London: Macmillan & Co. Oxford: Clarendon Press. The truer historical philosophy of our generation is rapidly producing its fruits in a higher class of histories. Almost every year witnesses the production of some historical work with which the last century has nothing to compare-Gibbon's great work alone excepted. The very conception of history as a record of the condition of the people, and not merely of the acts of its government, is new; and the natural consequences have followed. The materials of history are sought, not in mere acts of legislations or movements of armies, but in private letters, local registers, household accounts, personal diaries, broad sheets, and ballads:the true life of a people being ordinarily but little affected by governmental acts or battles, and its chief expressions being in the productions and records of daily social life.

Mr. Freeman has added another to the great histories of which we may well be proud. Mr. Grote, Lord Macaulay, and Mr. Froude are not to be permitted to wear their laurels alone. If Mr. Freeman's work be completed in accordance with this its first instalment, he will fairly take his place among the great historians of England; this is putting forth for him a great claim, but we feel assured that it will be justified by every reader who carefully peruses this volume, and who is competent to give a judgment. Mr. Freeman's history is not so massive in its structure as Gibbon's; it is not so brilliant as Macaulay's; it is not so flowing as Froude's; but it is equal even to Gibbon in scholarship, and to Macaulay in wide and out-of-the-way reading; while he far surpasses both Macaulay and Froude in his patient and skilful sifting of materials, in the intuitive sagacity which estimates their value, and in the fertile but yet sober and even severe historical imagination which reproduces the life of olden times in its complex combinations, its real human forms, and even in its local colouring. The present volume is constructed out of materials too fragmentary and scant for exact and strongly-coloured

pictures; the utmost that any one, dealing fairly with available materials, can produce out of them is dim outline, shadowy forms, and probable surroundings of circumstance; more would awaken just distrust, but the great skill and power with which these are put upon the canvas, abundantly demonstrate the artistic pictures, which with more ample materials, Mr. Freeman would produce. Here and there, where information is fuller and details are accidentally supplied, Mr. Freeman does present us with historical pictures which, while they are severely truthful in drawing and circumstance, and are carefully subdued in brilliance, are almost startling by their vivid and pre-Raphælite realism; there is a wonderful freshness, fulness, and tone about them.

Mr. Freeman has undertaken a task which, after three separate beginnings, Sir Francis Palgrave had to leave unfinished. Palgrave began to construct a history of Normandy and of England on a much larger plan than that of Mr. Freeman. He lived to complete only two volumes, and to rough-hew two more, which have been posthumously published. But his work is a mere fragment, or rather a series of fragments; for the latter portions of it are mere parts of the whole which was contemplated. Thus, after narrating the reign of William in Normandy, he gives us the history of his reign in England; but the nexus of the two-the history of the actual conquest is not supplied. Sir F. Palgrave was a most accomplished scholar, and he would be a bold man who questioned any of his mature conclusions; but his method of dictation to an amanuensis placed him at great disadvantage as a writer of history, in which so much depends upon minute points, and upon the indirect service of the eye in detecting and disposing them. His volumes, therefore, often pass into the rhetorical generalization of a lecturer. He is garrulous and colloquial-sometimes even grotesque and runs into interesting, but often superfluous digressions. He is oftener, moreover, the strenuous pleader rather than the dispassionate judge. Both he and Thierry 'were too apt to catch at any 'statement which seemed at all to support their several theories.' Nor does he enable us to modify his opinions by giving references to the authorities; in this he suffers more than his readers, for his researches are unwearied in their patience, and amazing in their extent. From these errors Mr. Freeman is wholly free. We almost feel his patient, anxious scrutiny of materials, his testing of the old chroniclers, his keen questioning of charter deeds, incidental records, and remote allusions. His materials are manifestly subjected to the most careful sifting, and the conclusions to which he comes are stated with a graduated measure of confidence according to the degree of his conviction. He is careful to give references, and no competent reader need be at a loss to form an independent judgment of the value of his authorities. He jealously avoids the rhetoric which so often leads Macaulay and Froude away. His pictures are not word-pictures so much as fact-pictures; they command the homage of the calmest judgment as well as the admiration of the artistic taste. Mr. Freeman justly insists upon the importance of the Norman Conquest as the turning-point of English history. He thinks that the only event that in manifold and momentous influence can be compared with it, is the introduction of Christianity. He as justly insists upon a knowledge of the previous history of both England and Normandy in order to an intelligent understanding of it. He protests, therefore, against the more empirical treatment of historians who represent English history, properly so called, as beginning with the Norman Conquest.

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The immediate results of the Conquest were practical rather than legislative. In ascending the throne of England, William accepted its constitution, and the Norman element was rapidly absorbed by the English. Mr. Freeman's theory of this great event is a kind of resolution of the theories of Thierry and Palgrave; he thinks that it was not so much as the former represents it to be, and that it was more than it is represented to be by the latter. This volume is devoted to what may be called the preliminary history of the Conquest. Beginning with the formation of the Kingdom of England, -the heathen period of English Conquest, the invasion of Teutonic tribes in 449,-he gives a summary of English History down to the period of William's successful landing at Pevensey Bay. This involves an account of the different kingdoms existing in the course of these six centuries, often ignorantly and untruly designated the Heptarchy,'-and of relative importance and fluctuating ascendancy; the chief historical personages are carefully studied, and they are presented as they really were, with wonderful historical sagacity and artistic skill. We need instance only the delineation of Elfred, Dunstan, Eadgar, and Cnut; the latter especially, who, for the first time, is presented to us a tangible, congruous man. lengthened and careful examination of the constitution of England during the tenth and eleventh centuries, is worthy the study of our constitutional reformers, especially just now; Mr. Freeman's conclusion concerning the suffrage being, that representation in the Witenagemót was unknown; that every Teutonic freeman had a voice in the assemblies; and that, practically, their presence was limited only by the difficulties which distance and circumstance imposed. The Danish Conquest of England and the dominion of the Danish kings, bringing down the history to the reign of Harthacnut in 1042, are sketched carefully and with considerable fulness. A more succinct sketch of the History of Normandy during the tenth century enables us to understand the relations between the two countries which ultimately led to William's invasion. With admirable skill Mr. Freeman compresses his narrative where all that is necessary is to indicate the main links in the chain of events, and enlarges it to historic fulness, as in the period from the reign of Eadward the Martyr to that of Eadward the Confessor, where the detail of events is an essential part of his theme.

The

Considering the mythical and legendary mist that has settled down upon that period of our national history which precedes the Norman Conquest, and through which Elfred, Dunstan, Chut, and Harold loom like heroes of romance; and considering how utterly chroniclers and historians, dramatists and novelists have hitherto failed to exhibit their genuine character or doings with either precision or certainty, Mr. Freeman has achieved a marvellous success. He has reduced this chaos to approximate cosmical order and human probability. We feel something like solid ground, and see something like real men and women. Scholars like Thierry, Kemble, Palgrave, Lappenberg, Guest, and others have prepared materials, without which such achievement would have been impossible; but to Mr. Freeman belongs the honour of having erected a structure which, when completed, will stand amongst the goodliest products of modern English history.

Madagascar Revisited: describing the events of a new reign, and the Revolution which followed, &c. By the Rev. WILLIAM ELLIS. London: Murray. 1867.

We hail the publication of this valuable work with peculiar pleasure. It differs greatly from the author's previous book on the same subject, and is far more complete in that information which Christian men were anxious to obtain. When Mr. Ellis gave to the world an account of his visit to Madagascar, in 1854 and 1856, in a handsome volume beautifully illustrated, the reader found the work stored with notices, well written and of considerable interest, of the rugged passes, the deep forests, the gigantic creepers, the orchids, and the ferns of the island, but deemed it somewhat deficient in the thing he specially looked for. Men saw how close had been his intercourse with the Prince, and even with the Queen; how many speeches of courtesy he had made; and how many pictures he had taken with his camera. They read about tea-parties at Hankey; a journey across the Karoo desert, and the thrilling story of the wrecked whalers. In a mysterious way he had met with one 'friend' here, or a few 'friends' there; or a little company had sat with closed doors talking far into the night. He gave most affecting details of the great persecution of 1849, and described how fourteen martyrs had been hurled over the precipice, and four nobles had been burned in a single day; but not one living Christian was named, and no particulars were given of the number of the converts, or the way in which Christ and His gospel were still working among the heathen of that strange island.To many minds the book occasioned great disappointment. But Mr. Ellis knew the circumstances as English people did not know them, and his studied silence was just and wise. He knew that the persecuting Queen was still upon the throne, that his narrative would be most rigidly examined, and that there were many in Madagascar prepared to curry favour with the Government, by bringing to the Queen's notice details which, though interesting to ourselves,' would thus injuriously affect 'good men,' whom every Christian heart was only too anxious to spare.

All this is changed; and the work before us is as full of details as the former was necessarily deficient in them. With the life of the persecuting Queen all danger to the Christian converts passed away; and Mr. Ellis now gives us, without reserve, their names and character, their sufferings, and labours in the work of Christ. These particulars are placed in a setting of personal incidents, descriptions of the country, and of public events, that give the narrative a peculiar charm, and sustain the interest of the reader to the close. From the special position it occupies, and the peculiar information it conveys, it ought, among Christian men to be one of the most popular books of the present season.

The narrative is framed on a very simple plan. Mr. Ellis moves straight onward in his story, relating events simply in the order in which they occurred. Setting out with the death of the Queen, and the invitation sent him by her son and successor, he describes his arrival, the warm welcome he received from the Government, and his reception by the now free and happy Christians. He tells us of the visit of the English and French embassies; the great event of the King's coronation; the sad development of the King's weaknesses; the revolution which destroyed him; and the inauguration of the new reign. We have full particulars of the recommencement and growth of the mission, the spread and organization of the native churches, the founding of the

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native ministry, the preparations for building churches in memory of the martyrs, and his safe return to England. As a rule, the narrative flows steadily on; sometimes too full of detail; always clearly and pleasantly told; and at times containing touching and elegant passages of great beauty.

But to one who watches with thoughtful interest the growth of the Malagasy nation, and their transition from heathenism and cruelty to civilization, enlightenment and true religion, the chief charm of the whole book is the writer himself, and the work which he set himself to do. England may well be proud of him as one of her sons; and the London Missionary Society may well be grateful for the honour put upon it, when we contemplate the lofty aims which he kept in view, and mark the wise and beneficial influence he exercised on the future of a people just entering on a national career. It is not always so. Evil Englishmen swarm in distant parts of the world, where sharp dealing with the simple and ignorant can make them suddenly rich. The young, weak Radama, humane and impulsive, was surrounded by men who encouraged his weaknesses, and in his drunken revelries plundered him and his people of enormous and ill-gotten gains. And it is a noble sight, amid such social disorder, to see this Christian Englishman, who never received a shilling from the people he blessed, always at hand with wise counsel, always watchful over the nation's interests, warning the young monarch of his follies, and entreating him as a father does his son to respect himself and fulfil his duty to his people. Nothing is more striking than the singleness and sincerity with which Mr. Ellis devoted the ripe experience of a long life of usefulness to the service of the people he had learned to love. We see him in many places, dealing with a great variety of questions, mixing with all kinds of people. High and low, noble and peasant, kings and subjects, seek his advice. They bring before him problems, political and social, mercantile and religious. These are sometimes trifling, sometimes of the grandest import. But he is always ready; he seizes the matter in hand, looks deep to the foundations on which it rests, and gives the wisest and most happy replies. Whether comforting the bereaved families of his deceased friends,' or visiting the scenes of martyrdom, attending the Church services, advising the native ministers, or welcoming the missionaries, he seems always to do the right thing, and speak the right words. He is never more at home than when explaining apostolic doctrine and practice to the pastors who so deeply revered him; and his disinterestedness nowhere shines out so clearly as inquiet, confidential discussions with the frail young king, whose weaknesses and evil companions were hurrying him to irremediable ruin. No missionary in modern days has taken a broader view of the greater questions of Church government which spring up in the new Christian communities founded by modern missions; and no one has been less disposed, either by persuasion or the force of authority, to lay upon the native Church the burden of a Church system brought from a foreign land. The perusal of the story cannot fail to add greatly to the reputation Mr. Ellis had previously won for sagacity and goodness, and to the high personal esteem in which he was already

held.

On all points connected with the growth of the native Churches Mr. Ellis gives the fullest information. One most interesting passage of his work describes the views prevalent among the converts in the days of persecution, and shows how they were developed. He enters fully also into his discussions with them, and describes his visits to different

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